Tolaga Bay (Māori: Uawa) is both a bay and small town on the East Coast of New Zealand's North Island located 45 kilometres northeast of Gisborne and 30 kilometres south of Tokomaru Bay. It was named Tolaga Bay by Lt. James Cook,[1] In 1769, but the original Māori name is Uawa Nui A Ruamatua (shortened to Uawa), and some local residents now refer to the area as Hauiti, and themselves as Hauitians[2] from the local iwi Te Aitanga-a-Hauiti. The region around the bay is rugged and remote, and for many years the only access to the town was by boat. Because the bay is shallow, a long wharf - the longest in New Zealand (600m) - was built in the 1920s to accommodate visiting vessels.
